A Not Quite Golden Afternoon
by Linlaah
Summary: Newly appointed Queen Alice is finding solving the problems caused by the last queen to be much harder than she ever could have imagined. But with the help of her friends, she might just have a chance. Now a oneshot.


**AN: Hey everyone! This is a new Alice in Wonderland story that I wrote. **

**Recently I've been reading the work of The Queen Of Broken Hearts, who is now my unofficial hero when it comes to fanfiction. Lol Anyway, like in her stories, Cheshire is a human. This story is based on her work as well, so if you like it(or even if you don't) you should read her work.  
**

Alice Lidell wrinkled her nose. She bit her lip, and put her head on one side, and gazed at her reflection silently for a few seconds. Not a pretty picture. Her long blond hair was sticking out at strange angles, her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes. ...wonderful. She sighed, blinked, then glared. Stupid mirror. She then let out a gurgle of laughter.

"It's your own fault," she scolded herself. "It's your fault you look like this."

And it was true too. She had spent the last few nights awake, trying to find answers to the questions that plagued her. The questions were all things pertaining to Wonderland, and what she was going to do to help it. She had been made queen of Wonderland five days before, and had since not had a wink of sleep. So it really was no wonder that she looked the way she did.

Well, she thought, taking another look at herself in the mirror. It could be worse.

Which of course it could be. She could also have red splotches all over her face, or have lines. Even so, she was only eighteen, and yet she was beginning to look much older. Either that or she was beginning to look a bit like the undead. At the moment she wasn't sure which.

Moving to her dresser she picked up a brush and began to brush her hair. She may not be able to do anything about her face, but she could at least make her hair look half-way decent. As she pulled the brush through her hair her mind wandered.

She had been working nonstop for three days now, but she still had barely even made a dent in fixing the many problems that befell Wonderland. So far she had, in fact, only managed to repair some of the damage that the last queen had done. Alice's blue eyes darkened. That woman had destroyed so many lives... she hadn't even cared what she did, as long as she herself was happy.

That kind of person had always angered Alice, and the former queen had been no different.

Just thinking of the queen made her angry. Realizing that she had finished with her hair, Alice carefully lay down the brush and turned back to the mirror. Well, not much of an improvement, but at least she looked somewhat decent.

There was a knock at her door, and Alice sighed. The queen's job was never done, she thought wryly.

"Come in," she called, turning from the mirror to face the door.

As she watched the door slowly swung inward, and a man stepped into her room. "Alice," he greeted, his face grim.

The dread was like smoldering black embers right in the pit of her stomach. She knew the sensation well. She used to feel it every day when she was faced with the boring lessons that her sister taught to her. She knew dread well, although this kind was so much stronger than what she was used to.

It was an unusual sight to see Cheshire look unhappy, let alone grim. His handsome face was taut, the skin dreadfully pale. So yes, that part might have just been her imagination, since his skin was always extremely pale in color. But the lack of a smile really did make her worry. She could only remember a few times when the smile had not been present on the tall man's face, and none of those occasions had been pleasant ones. His Gothic clothing was also disheveled, looking very much like he had slept in the black pants and ruffled black shirt. His piercing violet eyes were so dark at this moment that they almost seemed to be the same color as his long ebony hair.

"We need to talk," Cheshire said bluntly.

"About what?" asked Alice nervously, really not wanting the answer to her question.

He took a few more steps toward her, took in her appearance and sighed. He knew that being queen was taking its toll on the young woman, and the news he had to deliver would definitely not help matters. But it really couldn't be helped. She needed to know.

"It's about Darla." He hesitated, before finishing, "she's escaped from prison."

Alice paled. But that wasn't possible. "How could she escape? I thought there were guards!"

Cheshire flinched. "There were. Somehow she managed to get past them."

This was definitely not good news. Not only had she been the former queen, but it had been rumored that Darla had also been a sorceress in her own right. If she had escaped, then that would mean that Wonderland was no longer safe. Alright, so admittedly it hadn't exactly been safe before she escaped, but it was even less so now.

Alice swayed slightly, a feeling of nausea washing over her. The thoughts whirling through her mind were all worse case scenarios of what might happen now, but she knew the truth. She knew that if Darla was loose, then any one of those thoughts were entirely too possible.

Cheshire stared at her worriedly. "Alice, are you alright?" he asked softly.

Snapping out of her thoughts the woman nodded quickly. "Y-yes, I'm fine. I'm perfectly..." She sighed. She knew she couldn't lie to him. That was one thing that hadn't changed. "No, I'm not alright... I'm quite the opposite."

"Quite?" mocked Cheshire. He ran a hand through his already messy hair. "Alice, be serious! This isn't the time for jokes."

Alice stared at him in shock. Jokes? He thought she was making a joke? Narrowing her eyes she placed her hands on her hips and glared up at him with a fierceness that some would believe her incapable of. "Joke? Why would I make a joke?"

It was his turn to stare at her, taken aback. "Alice, I--"

"No! I know what you meant. And you know, I am quite fed up with you right now. In fact, I'm quite fed up with it all! With everyone. Everyone, especially you and Catepillar have been telling me that I need to do this, or I need to do that. I need to 'act more like a queen', you tell me. I need to stop being such a child and start acting like an adult."

Cheshire said nothing as she ranted, too stunned to speak. This wasn't like Alice at all. She never went off like this. But then... he didn't really know her that well, it seemed.

Alice felt hot liquid on her cheeks and realized she was crying. Yet she didn't care at the moment. "Well I'll have you know that I'm doing the best that I can. I'm trying my best, and yet it just doesn't seem to be good enough. No matter what I do, it isn't enough! I haven't slept in days. I spend all of my time trying to help fix things, but none of you seem to notice! You barely even know what I sacrificed to stay here, or what I'm sacrificing now, in order to help Wonderland. You only care about Wonderland! You don't care about me at all!"

Her tirade ended on a shriek which made Cheshire flinch away. She really was angry. Still he didn't speak, and just watched as she let out a sob and turned away from him.

How could she have lost her temper like that? As soon as she finished speaking -- alright, more like yelling -- she had seen the hurt look in Cheshire's eyes. After turning away she took a few slow deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Being angry wouldn't solve a thing. She knew this, but she just hadn't been able to keep herself from yelling.

All of the anger, frustration, and sadness that had been mounting within her the past few days had finally gotten the better of her.

And now that she had her senses about her again, she regretted it. Biting her lower lip Alice sniffed. "I-I'm sorry, Cheshire... I didn't mean that."

Cheshire looked down at his boot clad feet. "No Alice, you did mean it. You may regret saying it, but you did, and do, mean it."

Alice turned her face toward him. "No, I--"

"It's alright Alice. You're right. I don't know what you're going through. But you are wrong on the last point. None of us only care for Wonderland. We all care for you." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "...I care for you."

"If that's true, then why..."

"I'm just tired, Alice. Everyone is. I can see that you are." Cheshire smiled faintly. "We're all on edge. Especially now that Darla has escaped."

Alice closed her eyes and nodded. She supposed she should believe him... after all, what reason would he have to lie? "I just can't believe that this is happening... I thought everything was going to get better, but now..."

Cheshire nodded. "Everything will get better, Alice. You'll see. We will find Darla, and once again put her where she belongs. You don't need to worry."

Alice opened her eyes and grinned. "I'm queen, you know. It's my job to worry."

He grinned as well and walked towards her. "Perhaps, perhaps not." Putting his arms around her he pulled her to him. Lowering his head he put his lips to her ear and whispered, "But for now let us do the worrying. Let someone else be the one to take away your pain and worries."

"I... I don't..."

Alice felt heat rise within her at the contact, and couldn't help but blush. She was still curious about this effect that Cheshire had on her... it was so mysterious. She had never been in love, and she wasn't sure she knew what it was like, but perhaps it was something like this. This warm, soft feeling inside of her, a safe feeling that nothing could touch her. She smiled softly. Maybe this was love, or maybe this was just deep friendship. That was something she would one day understand.

Slowly she returned the hug, burying her face in his chest. "Alright... I'll give it a try," she murmured.

"Good," Cheshire said, and she felt him grin against the top of her head.

**EN: I'm not sure when I'll be able to update this, although I hope it will be soon. All I know is right now Alice and I aren't exactly on speaking terms, so it may take a bit of time to work out the problems...  
**


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